An Electric Ride

S. John Collins / Baker City Herald Richard Haynes’ Tesla Model S is a fully electric car with a range of almost 300 miles.

By Jayson Jacoby

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The loudest part about driving Richard Haynes’ car is latching the seatbelt.

When Haynes mashes the gas pedal to the floor the vehicle scarcely whispers, yet it accelerates at a rate normally associated with jet fighters

(And projectile vomiting, if you’re not prepared for the pace.)

Your vision blurs slightly.

And your ears, well, they’re even more confused because your brain insists that no car amasses speed so rapidly without making an awful racket.

Haynes drives a Tesla Model S.

And when you drive a Tesla, such references as that “mashes the gas pedal” line a couple paragraphs back become problematic.

The Tesla, strictly speaking, has no gas pedal.

Because it doesn’t burn gas.

It burns electrons.

Or, rather, it uses electrons, since no actual combustion takes place as the Tesla’s electric motor hurtles the 4,650-pound four-door sedan along with an alacrity that rivals that of a gas-gulping two-seat Corvette.

But he points out that Tesla founder Elon Musk hopes to offer a smaller sedan within a few years with a price range of $30,000 to $40,000.

Although Haynes’ primary home is in Portland he’s been spending more time recently in Baker City, helping to care for his mother, Marjorie Haynes.

His father, the longtime Baker City businessman Dick Haynes, died in December 2012.

Richard Haynes said he bought the Tesla without even taking it for a test drive.

“I knew I wanted one,” he said.

Haynes speaks with passion about the benefits of renewable energy and other technologies that reduce the world’s consumption of fossil fuels.

The Tesla, which is perhaps the most noteworthy electric car in the past several decades, naturally piqued his curiosity when it was unveiled about three years ago.

Although the Tesla looks futuristic — in place of a conventional center stack of instruments there’s a single high-definition touch screen that resembles an iPad, only bigger — the technology, Haynes emphasizes, is almost as old as the automobile itself.

“In 1898 in New York City there were about 3,000 cars registered,” he said. “1,980 of those were electric.”

Indeed, in the first couple decades of the automotive era, electric cars challenged internal combustion models — as well as steam-powered cars, which never really caught on — for market supremacy.

The Tesla isn’t the only electric car available in U.S. showrooms — Nissan sells the Leaf, for instance — but Musk has managed a level of success that eluded many other start-up companies, most of which tried to find a niche for conventional gas-powered cars.

Haynes’ car has the largest-capacity battery pack Tesla offers.

The 85-kilowatt-hour (kwH) battery boasts a range of as much as 306 miles on a single charge, according to Tesla.

(The company also sells a 60-kwH model that has a maximum range of 244 miles and starts at about $70,000.)

Haynes, who has put 2,400 miles on his Tesla, including multiple round trips between Baker City and Portland, said he can go about 275 miles before stopping for a recharge.

(The plug-in, by the way, is hidden behind the driver’s side rear taillight.)

That means he can’t make it from Baker City to Portland on one charge. He said he usually stays overnight at a motel in Boardman that lets him charge the Tesla.

“The cost of the motel room is still less than I would pay for gas,” Haynes said.

Speaking of which, he gets a minor thrill from driving by every gas station now that he doesn’t have to worry about finding one that’s open.

Except for that massive touch screen that dominates the dash, the Tesla’s interior is comparable to any luxury sedan’s, with supple leather seats and soft-touch, fine-grained surfaces elsewhere.

The Tesla has all the accouterments an owner expects — make that demands — at this price, including automatic climate control, GPS navigation and a stereo.

The touch screen displays not miles per gallon but watts per mile, as well as the number of kilowatt-hours the car has consumed since its last charge.

Of course all those accessories consume electricity, but Haynes said the heater or air conditioner, even if used constantly, doesn’t severely reduce the car’s range.

The Tesla also replenishes its energy supply every time it decelerates, a process known as regenerative braking. The car also has conventional disc brakes.

Although the Tesla is rear-wheel drive — not ideal for getting around on slippery roads — Haynes said he’s been impressed with his car’s traction. He credits the low center of gravity that results from the motor and the battery pack being placed below the floor.

That also frees considerable storage space that’s taken up by the engine in a conventional car.